“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

The F4U was a fighter-bomber (Attack Aircraft) that also often provided close support to ground units. It's mission was primarily to attack ground targets. They fought enemy aircraft they ran into while on these missions. Because they could not out-turn japanese planes, they had to develop tactics that allowed them to compete. These tactics are what allowed them to have a high kill ratio against Zeros (they were less effective against the KIs). The main tactic they used was called a cotton chopper. 5 planes would get elevation on a Japanese plane and dive on him one at a time. They could not fight them at slower speeds as they lacked maneuverability, so they had to maintain high speeds during an encounter and basically gang up on individual planes. The never fought one-on-one if they could avoid it, and depended on minimum 2 man teams.

The myth does not reflect the reality. My dad flew an F4U-5N with VC-4.